The fifth summit of Central and Eastern European heads of state opened doors in the Macedonian town of Ohrid, Macedonian agency Makfax reported on May 2, as quoted by Bulgarian Focus news agency.

“This summit is of particular importance to the Republic of Macedonia,” Macedonian president Branko Crvenkovski said in his opening address to attendants. “It represents the largest political event ever hosted by Macedonia.”

Seventeen presidents and two ambassadors have already started talks on the EU enlargement process and its impact on national economies.

The summit pools the presidents of Croatia, Moldova, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Slovakia, Serbia, Austria, Germany, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Turkey. Romania and Italy are present through their ambassadors to Macedonia. Turkish president Abdullah Gul attends as honorary guest.

Bulgaria’s President Georgi Purvanov is scheduled to have individual meetings with his counterparts in the region - Albania's Bamir Topi, Montenegro's Filip Vujanovic and Slovenia's Danilo Türk.

On May 3, the summit will focus on energy prospects and challenges for the region.

The summit will take place two days after Greece became the third Balkan country to join the Russian-Italian South Stream natural gas pipeline project.

Bulgaria already signed the project that Russian natural gas will be pumped via Bulgaria to Italy. Bulgaria will serve as a transit country where the pipeline will split into two, one pipeline going to Greece and southern Italy, and another one running north-west to Central Europe.

Serbia has stated it wanted to join the project, but the agreement with Russia will hit parliamentary floor after the May 11 elections.

Hungary has also joined the pipeline project, which will carry 30 billion cu m of gas a year. The project was initially announced in June last year, when Russian energy giant Gazprom and its Italian peer ENI signed the initial agreement for the pipeline.

Kosovo is another issue expected to be high on the agenda of the summit, although representatives of the former Serbian province, which declared independence from Belgrade in February, were not invited to the event.